Cohen is interested in fantasy-making in children and adults; to clarify that function, she discusses the relation of fantasy to the fantasizer's awareness of reality. She briefly presents a child of six and a half, and among other ideas, suggests that the child used fantasy activity to establish his relation to his therapist. The developing child uses fantasy to understand and master oedipal and other drives, but understanding and mastering reality also serves this purpose. Cohen also discusses the question, what are the boundaries between fantasy and reality (when does the fantasy activity become too real, for example), and she points out that for fantasy, as for metaphor, a sense of reality is necessary.